Touring Around Missouri

It has certainly become cooler now here in St.Louis, but for a variety  of reasons beyond our control, we will still continue to reside here.  Hopefully we will be heading south in another week.

Last week we rode on our bikes over the Creve Coeur Connector path which crosses the Missouri River.  The bridge, called the Page Avenue/364 bridge, connects the Katy Trail on the west end to the southwest corner of Creve Coeur Park.  There is an section of that bridge which has a variety of locks hanging from it.  This practice of hanging the locks and throwing away the key symbolizes unbroken love.  Names and wedding dates are on the locks.  It started during World War 1 in many cities around the world.   Leaders of some of those cities consider it an act of vandalism and have removed the locks, especially when their combined weight starts damaging the fence from which they are hanging. 

Saturday we made a trip down to Farmington, Missouri for John's high school reunion (class of 1959).  The leaves of some trees are now starting to turn, pictured above is a red maple tree which became flaming red with the sun setting on it.  The tree is located in the front yard of Carolyn's home.  She is John's sister who resides in Farmington.

Yesterday, Sunday, we made a trip down to Perry County, located in the southeastern corner of Missouri.  Pictured above is Trinity Lutheran church, built in 1867.  In 1839 700 Saxon Lutherans settled in the county and formed the parishes of Wittenberg, Dresden, Seelitz, Altenberg, and Frohna.  Trinity Church is located in the town of Altenberg.  We found the altar to be quite unusual with the pulpit located above it.

 

After spending some time at the museum in Altenberg we discovered that our day was about shot and there was no time to look at the other Lutheran historical sights in Perry County.  However, we did drive over to the river to see if there was a marker for the landing site of the Saxon Lutherans.  Unfortunately it would have been a difficult climb down to that site at the river's edge. While exploring the area we happened to see the Tower Rock,  a mass of limestone arising 85 feet out of the Mississippi River.  In 1696 Catholic missionaries planted a cross on that island.  In 1803 Lewis and Clark passed by this section of the river,  Lewis found the rock so interesting that he wrote about it in his journal.